This is a strange one i havent encountered before. Im using alsa but not OSS, devfs creates a /dev/dsp- but not a /dev/dsp. When i "cat > ./pop.wav > /dev/dsp-" then the /dev/dsp device is created ... If im in KDE i restart aRts and then sound works fine.

yep, i have followed what suggextions i could find on this forum ... i have an alias for /dev/dsp i have unmuted the mixer ... as i said i can get sound ... its just that /dev/dsp is not created by devfs until i access /dev/dsp-

Excellent! so now i dont have to "cat pop.wav > /dev/dsp-" ... but it begs the question why wasnt snd-pcm-oss being loaded? Should i just put it in my modules.autoload? The other question it provokes is, is there a way of determining when a module is associated with a particular device?